As the race for the 2023 general elections hots up, it appears electoral value, street credibility, popular choice, internal democracy and stakeholder consultation would not be factors to be considered by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in arriving at its choice of flag bearers for the House of Assembly and House of Representatives positions.

In fact, Kristina Reports’ findings indicate that the Bonny LGA chapter of the party and its myriad supporters are about witnessing on a larger scale the drama of 2019, when it was just one party faithful, the then House of Representatives member, Randolph Brown, and his supporters that shed the proverbial tears when he was controversially dumped by the party leadership and the position ceded against the gentlemanly arrangement in place to the incumbent member of the House of Representatives.

Kristina Reports can reliably report that a former Ward Women leader, Education Supervisor and now Women Leader is about to be nominated to the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, alongside the cousin of the Bonny LGA PDP leader, for the House of Representatives and House of Assembly positions. This, according to party sources, is against the plethora of more credible aspirants already jostling for the two positions.

This is against the expectations that any decision as to who flies the party’s flags for these two slots would be the outcome of wide consultations with stakeholders and leaders of the party across the different wards taking into account the aspirants’ electoral value, street credibility, popular choice and internal democracy.

Recall that at a recent stakeholders meeting, the State Governor called for consensus candidates by stakeholders in the different LGAs, insisting that the Assembly and House of Representatives positions should be designated for male and female, respectively.

It was resolved among stakeholders that the House of Reps position for Degema/Bonny Federal Constituency would be left for a woman in the spirit of the Governor’s belief in women inclusion in politics while the Assembly slot would be for men.

So far, there are about eight candidates in total, four men and four women who have indicated interested to run for the position. These include Niger Delta gender activist and development enthusiast, Lolo Hailsham; Alali Irimagha; former Caretaker Committee Chairman and PDP Chairman in Bonny LGA, Simon Hart, and Special Assistant to Senator Betty Apiafi, Boma Jumbo.

Others are Bonny Kingdom Woman Leader, ex-banker, school proprietress, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Helen Jack-Wilson Pepple; Dr Boma Banigo; Erewarifagha Allaputa; the incumbent Councillor representing Ward 6 who wanted to leverage his maternal links to Degema LGA before his ambition was quashed; and PDP woman leader in Bonny LGA, Christaben Frank-Hart.

For the House of Assembly position, the incumbent, Abinye Pepple, former CTC Chairman, Cyril Hart, incumbent Secretary Bonny LG Council, Ralph Jamaica, immediate past Councillor representing Ward 11, Ibinye Igoni-Wilcox, and cousin and Special Assistant to the Bonny PDP leader and Commissioner for Local Governments, Victor Oko-Jumbo, are frontliners so far.

A top source within the PDP in Bonny, who preferred anonymity, hinted Kristina Reports that the Commissioner for Local Governments, Rodaford Longjohn, popularly known as Ajama, appears comfortable to hand the Assembly slot to his “boy”, Victor Oko-Jumbo, and the Reps slot to Christaben Frank-Hart. According to the source, the belief is that these are two persons he can control if they attain power.

Knowledgeable sources have disclosed to Kristina Reports that while Victor Oko-Jumbo’s candidacy is allegedly a strictly nepotistic consideration, Christaben’s candidacy is reportedly being promoted by her husband’s strong ally, Solomon Agwanana, the Chairman of PDP Bayelsa State chapter.

Oko-Jumbo, who is Ajama’s cousin, a one-time Vice President of the National Union of Rivers State Students (NURSS), and a strong force to reckon with in the Student Community, has been Ajama’s Personal Assistant, and later Special Assistant, after the late David Irimagha’s ascension as LGA Chairman.

This latest move is viewed in certain quarters as compensation for his loyalty and geared towards expanding the political influence of Ajama’s family, which already includes the Vice Chairman of the LGA, Omoni Longjohn, who joined the party from the All Progressives Congress (APC) and was soon appointed Secretary to the Bonny Local Government Council, serving under two administrations before his elevation to Vice Chairman position.

For Christaben, popularly known as “Titi”, her rise within the party’s ranks has been rapid since her foray into the party from the APC in 2018. She speedily rose from Ward Woman Leader to Supervisor for Education and now PDP LGA Woman Leader.

Her husband, Frank Hart, who is reportedly a strong ally of the APC Bonny LGA Leader, George Tolofari, a former Commissioner for Transport in the State, has been up and about in ensuring his wife scales through in this latest bid of hers. A strong politician and popular in Bonny for the delivery of any candidate he chooses to support, irrespective of party lines, Hart is said to be pulling all the strings across the Niger Delta region, including a certain Okrika traditional ruler.

Already, the incumbent Lawmaker representing Bonny Constituency in the Rivers State House of Assembly, Abinye Blessing Pepple, is said to have parted ways with Ajama over his third term bid which was reportedly rejected by the latter.

As at now, there appears to be a strong resistance from party stakeholders and former local government Chairmen to the sole move by Ajama to continue his pattern of imposing candidates on the party as evidenced by the litany of petitions reportedly already before the State Governor.

Some top officials in Government House, Port Harcourt have confirmed to Kristina Reports the receipt of about three petitions against Ajama by some critical stakeholders in the PDP in Bonny LGA. They infer that this may be part of the reasons why a State Stakeholders meeting where the final decisions would have been taken on Sunday, April 3, 2022 was postponed indefinitely, to allow room for the consideration of cases like that of Bonny LGA.  

One of the Government House sources, who preferred not to be named, posited that “if you know His Excellency, you will know that threats of protest votes and antiparty actions, which we hear are already invading the streets of Bonny in reaction to this unfolding development there, is what he would rather not have”.

“We know what we passed through in 2019 when due to some advice we’re still mulling over today, Randolph was dropped for Farah. It took the leadership acumen and political dexterity of the Governor to put that situation under control. Bonny is important to the PDP, especially, with the economic value of that place; we can’t afford to lose it to the APC.”  

Another stakeholder in the party in the area, who simply identified himself as Tamunoiselema, lamented that the PDP in Bonny LGA may be heading for an internal crisis, a scenario the APC would naturally cash into, especially, now that its house appears to be in order.

He stressed that how the Governor handles this is very important, as no political party can take the risk of fielding uneven and unpopular candidates for such a critical election as that of 2023, appealing that core considerations should be made for critical factors that would aid the party sustain its stronghold on the Bonny political space.   

“Does this woman have the national network needed to push things through at the federal level if she is pushed to the House of Reps? Does his small brother have what it takes to swing legislations and project votes to Bonny in the Assembly?”

“If the APC fields someone like Edward Pepple or Adonye Wilcox against her, what would be the choice of the people? Aside that Oko-Jumbo is Ajama’s brother, what else does he have to offer? We need to be very careful so that we don’t hand over these positions to the APC on a platter of gold.”

Stakeholders, party faithful and supporters await with bated breath the arrival of Governor Wike from Minna, Niger State, where, he, alongside other PDP Governors, went to consult with former Heads of State, Ibrahim Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar, regarding his presidential ambition.

It is expected that the Governor would have a behind-closed-door meetings with individual LGA party leaders to have background briefing on their nominations before the imminent stakeholders meeting where the nominations are expected to be ratified.